Devotion – Exodus 10

November 19th, 2008 by Mike Hubbard

Remember the Rocky movies. Sylvester Stallone plays the great champion, Rocky
Balboa. In Rocky III, the champion Balboa has a new challenger on the horizon. Clubber Lang (Mr. T) begins to challenge Rocky, calling him a chump. Rocky gets mad and accepts a fight with Lang, but he hasn’t really considered the abilities and strength of the challenger. Rocky’s manager even tries to talk him out of the fight, because Clubber will “kill ya.” But the champion, Rocky Balboa gets into the ring anyway, and Clubber Lang knocks his block off.

One of the reasons for Rocky’s failure is that he did not take into account who he was fighting. He didn’t take Clubber seriously because he thought he could win. Rocky underestimated Clubber’s power and skill, and it cost him dearly.

Fighting God seems to be a passion for some people. They have it in their minds that they have God figured out and they have him beat down. They deny that God exists and almost laugh in His face. These people hold up evolution as truth, and will openly break the commandments God has given. German philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche even declared that “God is dead.” The declaration was a declaration of battle with religion and the idea that God was involved with the human experience.

LIke Nietzsche, Pharoah was one of these people. He really believe that he could out do God. Pharoah thought he would be able to go fifteen rounds with the creator and come out ahead. As a man, Pharoah really believed he was a god, and could fight the Hebrew God till the end.

Fighting God is a bad move, because it demonstrates that a person has not considered his opponent. God has all power and all authority at His disposal. He does not get defeated. Pharoah is finding this fact out for himself. For nine rounds, Pharoah has stood in God’s face and defied God’s command. For nine rounds, God has been sending these miraculous plagues, and has brought judgement to Egypt. At the end of the ninth plague, almost everything that the Egyptians hold dear has been taken. Their farmland is ruined, their river is disgusting, and the sun has disappeared. But Pharoah won’t take off the gloves. He is still fighting God. Pharoah doesn’t want to give in and admit defeat.

Pharoah is going down. Had he considered his opponent, Pharoah would have bowed down and worshiped instead of being proud and fighting. The end result will be the total devistation of all that Pharoah holds dear. In the same way, people who fight God will end up ruined and devistated.

The philosopher who declared God is dead died. In the last ten years of his life, Nietzsche went mad, he literally lost his mind. Like Pharoah, the attempts to do battle with his Creator did not end well.